Wallyworld

Sailing, Watertribe and boat building

Winter is coming, and as Tropical Storm Joquim marches northward, we are getting rain and cold weather which is cooling off the Delaware Valley, and (much more importantly) my epoxy.

Epoxy doesn't react as quickly if it is cold, and in fact can refuse to harden if it isn't warm when mixed, as well as developing massive numbers of annoying bubbles. Although working time is shorter when warm, at least it flows and bonds when about 80degrees.

The answer is to store epoxy in a light box… a container large enough for your epoxy and containing an incandescent light bulb to warm up the epoxy. Of course, this means cutting, fitting, drilling, gluing… a whole bunch of steps to make a 6 sided box, and then install a door.

I wanted something easier.

So I bought two 5-gallon buckets, a lid, a piece of rubber roof flashing designed to conform about a vent stack (1.5-3 inch PVC pipe rising out of a roof), a 5" work lamp and a timer.

I cut the roof flashing so that it fit in a hole cut out of the flat part of the bucket lid. They were riveted together.

The light fits snugly inside the rubber roof, and I riveted it so that the air vent holes of the aluminum light shroud are just peeking out.

I then cut the bottom out of one of the buckets, so that the epoxy pump doesn’t bump into the top.

Screwed in a 15 watt bulb, hooked it up to a timer, and viola! Warm epoxy.